Climate Justice and Food Sovereignty by Hallie Arno

Modern food production is deeply linked with a changing climate. Soil sequesters carbon, industrial food production requires fossil fuels for growing and transport, animal agriculture produces greenhouse gases like methane, and the climate drastically affects growing conditions. However, these connections between climate justice and food sovereignty run even deeper when looking at who grows the food, where it is grown, and who reaps the profits. Involving youth in agriculture and food production is an opportunity to teach about climate justice and empower everyone to be able to produce their own food to eat.

 When I was 14, I started my first job at Erickson Fields Preserve, an organic educational farm in Rockport, Maine. As part of the Teen Agricultural Crew, I learned how to grow organic vegetables for local restaurants, schools, and food pantries. I spent four summers caring for plants, being in the natural environment with like-minded young people, and bringing organic vegetables from the field to the plates of those who needed it. The connection between the environment, food systems, and the community was infused into my high school experience; it’s impossible to unlearn the experience of seeing how much land, soil, water, and labor it takes to produce food. Food is what ties us to the environment and one another.

In college, I continue to be involved in Maine food systems. The simple act of growing food is tangible and practical, a welcome reprieve from the often ivory-tower, abstract nature of academia. You planted something, cared for it, and it grew. I worked as a seaweed harvester and on an experimental scallop farm, and continued seeing the same themes from land to sea. Seeing the same environments thriving year after year showed me how much stewardship is an integral part of producing food, and how food production brings the community together. 

Like many people in my generation, climate change is a constantly looming backdrop to our lives. Working outdoors, it’s easier to see shifting patterns in real-time and the undeniable effects they have on the planet and us as food producers. Climate activism feels like something necessary, inevitable—a responsibility. In an effort to get more involved, I joined Maine Youth for Climate Justice, a coalition of youth fighting for bold climate action and a just transition to a livable future. Because of the time I spent working to produce food, climate activism felt intrinsically linked to the food system. Many young activists are seeing these connections and are already leading the way to climate justice and food sovereignty in Maine. 

One of these young people is Julia St. Clair, a Maine Environmental Changemaker, a member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice, and the Agricultural Programs Coordinator at Brunswick Topsham Land Trust. “Interest in farming stems from feeling disconnected from our environment, and it’s an opportunity to reconnect. Food justice is part of climate justice, something that’s often forgotten about,” said  Julia. She improves access to farming by overseeing a community garden with over 80 plots, coordinates a volunteer-run garden that grows food for the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program, and manages the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust Saturday Farmer’s Market. She is working to connect more people to the natural environment, and farming is a natural bridge. “Something we need to be thinking about is how land is serving the community, and how the community is connecting to the land. That’s where I think agriculture plays a really important role.” Feeling part of the wider environment also connects us to the communities and systems we live in. Growing food is a way to directly connect people to one another. “One really rewarding aspect of the job is chatting with farmer’s market vendors. I love sharing food and the community around food,” said Julia. 

When we eat food, we become part of a global system of production, processing, and transportation, much of which is currently not sustainable for people or the planet. Another young activist, Charlie Cooper worked as a member of the Teen Agricultural Crew, then apprenticed at Erickson Fields Preserve.  He is now a student at UMaine Orono, leading the fight for the school’s divestment from fossil fuels as the president of Divest UMS. He focuses on the connections between agriculture and environmental justice. “Working on a farm shows you the value of labor and labor needs to go into the food system to have it operate in a sustainable manner,” Charlie said. “When you look at the big picture, all of these issues are interconnected.” We need food from a healthy environment, but we also need people to grow that food. Many farm workers in the U.S. are not well paid, and much of the labor is done by migrant workers without safe working conditions and protections. They work with dangerous chemicals and long hours. The soil isn’t sequestering carbon like it is in organic farming, and conventional agriculture relies heavily on fossil fuels. “Industrial agriculture is not environmentally sustainable, so we have to reinvent our food system in a regenerative way to combat climate change, environmental destruction, and the social injustices that come along with that.” Charlie continued emphasizing  the importance of involving more people in farming, saying “Cultivating that connection to the food system, cultivating that connection to the ecosystem and the broader community as well goes a long way to making people feel responsible for the upkeep of those systems.”

Maine youth are seeing the relationships between food justice, climate justice, and social justice, and are working hard to address them. Some of this by necessity: climate change will be something that we, and our children, will fight for the rest of our lives. We also need more education to allow youth to be involved in food production.  

Lu Brown, a youth activist and a Maine Environmental Changemaker in Norway, Maine, apprenticed at Erickson Fields Preserve and is a member-owner of Spoke Folks, a bicycle-powered cooperative that provides trash, recycling and compost pickup. He discussed the direct connections between youth activism and agriculture. “We are the future, so if we’re not able to participate and engage with agriculture in a way that supports our cost of living, then the food system is failing.” Lu highlighted the connections between agriculture and social justice. “Activism and advocacy for living wages and fair and equitable conditions for workers in our food systems by and for youth is really essential, and I think it’s a part of our responsibility as young people in the state to be involved in campaigns that advocate for those things,” he said. A vital aspect of this is ensuring that everyone has access to land to grow food, particularly those who have been historically marginalized from land ownership. “Building more equitable food systems involves land redistribution and reparations.” 

Growing our own food, sharing it with others, and teaching the next generation about where our food comes from is a form of activism. Youth are leading the way. The best way to feel these deep-rooted connections between us, our community, and the environment is to experience them. Programs to involve young people in agriculture exist in Maine, but there is more work to do to ensure everyone is empowered to feed themselves and their communities in a way that is socially and environmentally beneficial. We need all young people to be active participants in food systems to be stewards of our environment and communities.